Pranksters seem to be everywhere these days and Google Maps is no exception. The famous online map, which helps people get directions and travel time online, was temporarily shut down due to a prank.
The tool allows people to add landmarks on the digital map. The shutdown was brought about by a prankster, who created a fictional park in Pakistan, which was represented by an Android robot that appeared to be taking a pee at an Apple logo.
"Every edit you make is essentially going to a backlog that is growing very fast. It is not fair to any of our users to let them continue to spend time editing," Pavithra Kanakarajan, a member of the Google Maps team said.
Last month, Google has already announced that it will start improving its maps division to avoid spam edits. The pranker, who goes by the username "nitricboy," was an active member of the community. Which is why detecting the pranks early on did not happen.
Spam edits increased by the numbers recently, one of which was a store that was named "Edward Snow Den."
"As some of you know already, we have been experiencing escalated attacks to spam Google Maps over the past few months. The most recent incident was particularly troubling and unfortunate - a strong user in our community chose to go and create a large scale prank on the Map. As a consequence, we suspended auto-approval and user moderation across the globe, till we figured out ways to add more intelligent mechanisms to prevent such incidents," Kanakarajan said in a comprehensive explanation on the issue.
According to her, all the edits were then processed manually. Kanakarajan also mentioned that improving the system will take "more than just a few days."
Google Maps was launched in 2011 and allows users to upload new data. The mapping service has proved to be useful, especially with the advent of smartphones. Locals who reside in rural areas often upload details and landmarks where Google has not been to yet.
